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The first six rounds of this year have shown that the Eagles were not the side that their biggest supporters had them done to be. Clearly the loss of Judd and Cousins has been displayed, by its once second tier of midfielders struggling to help out Daniel Kerr stick to once sturdy, clearance driven, and ball carrier-protecting team plan. Even more noticeable is the lack of support he has had from players who were also once called elite midfielders such Braun and Embley.

Eagle supporters can be resentful towards me suggesting a of change tact in John Worfold’s box, I will never be their club’s greatest fan. My point is still think remains very valid, things are not working. The morale of the viewed once so mighty team must be evidently low. Garry Lyon suggested this perhaps being behind the side’s weak resistance to Barry Hall after his disgraceful hit to Brent Staker. A football side winning can also gloss over a lot of problems within a club. Maybe last year’s off field events, are not looking as great in the daylight of this season’s negative win-loss rate.


Woosha must see that his side need to change things as quickly as possible, and I think that to do so it is best to make things as simple as possible. The last thing a side near the bottom needs is to worry about a complicated game-plan. The midfield of his side can not just simply take on the opposition man for man and think that they have the brilliance to come out on top. Things need to be setup more defensively, to get the players more focused and most of all at least enjoying their football as much as possible.

A shoot-out with the dogs would be even more ridiculous. For a number of years the bulldogs have owned the term “Pace” and are in their own best form for a couple of seasons. Therefore the Eagles upon realizing the defensive pressure they will need to apply and the simple way to do so. I personally would look at starting from the top down, looking where the goals can come from in a defensive side. Andrew Embley was criticized heavily for his poor midfield performance last week. How about throwing him at full-forward and isolating him? He’s a big bloke, who can take a mark and kick a goal; he has showed this throughout his career. Not only this, he has the athletic pace, and a great goal sense for crumbs.


Embley is hailed as a champion by many at his club; this could be the opportunity for him to respond to his knockers. For his coach to back his man as a champion, and a example. By clearing space for Embley with perhaps Wirrapunda and McKinley as Half-forwards moving to the equation at the drop of the ball. The footy game becomes a lot simpler to understand for the side to understand, and the pressure of covering for the two departed brownlow medalists is taken of a bunch of largely inexperienced midfielders who can push back.

It also provides the club with the chance of auditioning Embley for a role as a genuine full-forward. I think the audition is overdue. Despite the 2006 flag, Lynch shows much enthusiasm and Hansen has great hands. However neither is a target the likes of even a Lucas or a Mooney. In turn both have shown the use of their hands as targets on the flanks. The bypassing from midfielders from within the central corridor has seen the role of one key forward replace a Centre-Half in front of man in the square. Richo showed at Subiaco recently that a Lynch-sized typed units moving forward from a wing could not be as bizarre as first thought.

Hansen will be missing this week, so Lynch could be possibly unburdened by his recent lack of goals in by maybe finding some rhythm and continuity as a spare man in defense. The return on Hansen likewise could see him focus on strong marking skills and less emphasis on kicking goals, he was never the player his four goals his Grand Final performance suggested but one still of much value.

The plan may seem negative, and relent on the response of a vice-captain to performance. Worsfold likes reporters to believe he only deals in injury and stat sheets. The reality is his young captaincy lead to the club first golden age. And his arrival as coach saw the club’s reemergence from the pack again. You could pick a much a worse man to provoke a down and out side into a reaction

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Death of a full forward?

April 25th 2008 03:34
AFL LATEST MERGER MAKES POWER FORWARD: Can Lloyd cope?
April 25th 2008 03:34
When any group of people my age discuss football, the great full forwards of our childhood always seems to be mentioned. We reminisce on the perfect leads of Dunstall , the sheer strength of Lockett and the "Ablettness" of Gary Senior. The difference between these three player’s ability to kick the magical 100 goals in a season versus the ability of current players is always the central talking point. The reality was that we grew up seeing the last era of full forwards. As Matthew Lloyd is discovering, Full Forwards and Center Half Forward just do not exist like the used to. In Today's football, the more successful sides just seem to usually use the one "Power Forward".

When the first side used this tactic, it was dubbed "Pagan's Paddock". The Kangaroos realized a Wayne Carey by himself beween the two traditional key forward positions, simply meant more Wayne Carey. This in turn meant more goals. The most dangerous player in the game was able to get a chance at the ball at nearly every forward thrust. It also meant that rarely the opposition would clear the ball, such was the King's presence in a contest even if he did not mark.

The raw speed of football today was began to appear towards the end of Carey's career. However, the new ultra-fast running midfielder makes the need for only one power forward all the more relevant to score goals at rapid pace. To combat the end to end speed of their opposition, it has become common place for most clubs to place players behind the ball. No longer can full forward just focus on timing his leads into space to receive a lace-out pass.

The league now features a list of players headed by Gary Ablett and Chris Judd who can burst out of the center into the forward fifty in seconds. Instructing such players to then pass to a Center Half or Full Forward makes no sense. Even the village idiot could see that it would be much more beneficial for their midfield speedsters to take their momentum, with the footy and go for home themselves. Or at least handball to another on-running midfielder to have a quick shot at goal. A big monster with an equivalent opponent standing as genuine Center Half Forward will only be forming a needless wall to block his teammates.

After returning from long-term injury Lloyd himself admits he has been struggling in recent games. During Essendon's heyday in the 1999-2000 era Kevin Sheedy tried to rotate his star for a more unpredictable balance. The simple reality is that Essendon's favourite son has had a successful career really only as a Full Forward. Like many juniors predicted to be further up the ground forwards, Lloyd has perfected the art of the goal-square.

A quick look at the top forwards, essentially shows the Bombers problem with their heroic goal kicker. Franklin, Brown, Pavlich, Mooney, Fevola, Hall are all players of athletic ability who play at least large portions in the power forward position. Utilising big tanks for fast leads, but at the same time being able to force fifty-fifty contests and applying defensive pressure to allow on running midfielders score goal themselves. Another concern for the Don's captain is the injured Scott Lucas fits nicely onto that list.

Today will most likely be the biggest game for Matthew Lloyd this season, and has no bigger stage to show if he can quickly adapt to being a more modern forward. Just as the Anzac's did when they were placed in the most foreign of situations on land a world away , and showed the world the Australian "Fighting Digger Spirit".
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True, many of the commentators who espouse this mantra have a point about the game’s evolving nature assisting its longevity and accessibility. The West Coast success derived by being a mid field clearance machine has been replaced by Geelong’s long kicking dominance, is a relevant example of the evolving game plans resulting in flags for their teams. There are many noted example of a evolutionary game plan resulting in a flag.

Let’s go back to the 1970 Grand Final, and look again at the rules that had not yet been changed. In1970, a “Footy Traditionalist” would have wanted to keep in place rules that would make it capable for an English National Rugby side to win a match of AFL with ease. A player of the time could literally pick up the ball and kick it seventy metres down the field into the grand stand, and be granted a throw in for his trouble. A “No Questions Asked” policy if you will.

Modern international Rugby Union can teach the AFL something about the validity of rule change. The purists of Rugby Union squirm at the kicking and possession dominated manner in which the games is played today. A perfect example of a sport whose negative attitude towards rule change has caused nothing but damage to the flow of the game.

A punch to the face of your opponent in their backline of the 1970 Grand Final also resulted in him being rewarded a free kick, on the spot in the backline, nothing more, nothing less. Behind play free kicks, after goal free kicks, and fifty meter penalties all did not exist. Presumably a traditionalist would not have wanted these new rules added either. However, it is difficult to argue about the merits these rules have in our current game.

I will never be a great fan of changing rules in the AFL, but the one thing I’ll never ever call myself is a “Footy Traditionalist”, someone who says no to all changes. The simple reality is that AFL, like all codes, needs rule changes from time to time. It is indeed the changes made to the rules that have keep the AFL in such healthy shape as a code in modern times. In some such examples the changes made by the AFL could be partly some of the reason why the game has remained in such the healthy shape it is today.

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TRADTION IS GREAT- BUT NOT ALWAYS

April 23rd 2008 07:59
It seems to me that it happens every year. Every year there will be at least one contentious decision. Every year there will be one deemed act of unfair game play. Directly after said contentious act the media will make their annual announcements of the need for rule changes and the rule race begins. This year, uneven bounces, a specialist goal kicker and a Barry Hall whack has seen the “I’m a Traditionalist” start earlier than usual.

Every year I become more and more of the view that the media itself has created a fictional character who calls for rule changes. A character, no parent would ever want his or her child to play with in the school yard. According to everyone in the football media, changing the rules of football is tantamount to anarchy or even worse, our game becoming, shock horror, like soccer or netball. Therefore, journalist after journalists and ex-champions all claim to be “Footy Traditionalists” who would carry swords into battle to keep the rules of the game just as they are right now. Which is an attitude that is problematic considering the effect it had on the Russian Tsar following his determination not to change the rules


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